After nearly 6 years, I''m Truly Tired (tm) of hearing about "advertising in games" as some kind of possibility...

1. Players suggest advertising in games because they figure it''s a way to play a game for free...never seeming to realize that the advertising is intended for *them*...the game sure as hell don''t need it. And these players then do everything they can to *not* have to deal with the ads...

2. As Jack P already pointed out...the audience is too small to support normal advertising rates.

3. And even if the audience wasn''t too small...click-thru ads have such been such a huge, all-around failure as a means of effectively sending a message (except in very isolated cases), that it''s amazing anyone still uses them. On top of that, it''s pretty easy to find software that will strip off ads in nearly every conceivable context (see #1).

Advertisers are only interested in buying ads that people see, and (in the case of the Internet) respond to. Ads in games aren''t those type of ads.

As for "general interest" games that supposedly support themselves via advertising...there are fewer and fewer of these each week. Because they''re not turning a profit, can''t meet expenses, and have to go offline.

I would say that if there was ever a period of time when ads in games could support those games, it has long past...and only lasted a few minutes...


DavidRM
Samu Games